After an accident one of your first calls may be to report your accident
to an insurance company. Typically the insurance company that will be
responsibility for your claim will be the one employed by the person or
company responsible for your injuries. This is called third party liability
- and is the most common type of insurance coverage in South Carolina
to pay for medical bills, pain and suffering and other damages sustained
as a result of a personal injury.
The insurance representative you speak with will be a professional negotiator
who is employed by a for-profit company. In the context of third-party
coverage they
do not owe you a duty of good faith dealing. Because of the inherent conflict
of interest between you and the insurance company- and the fact that they
do not have any legal obligation to treat you well, many times injured
people find that they are unable to reach any type of reasonable resolution
to their claim.
It is important that you understand that all of your communications with
the insurance company are negotiations. Just like on a police TV show
"everything you say can and may be used against you." The insurance
company has one goal, and that is to pay you as little money as possible.
When you are confronted with a situation where you believe that the insurance
company is being difficult or treating you unfairly it is important to
let them know that you understand your rights under South Carolina law
to pursue full and fair compensation for all of your injuries.
The Law Office of James R. Snell, Jr., LLC, is a South Carolina Personal Injury law firm representing clients in automobile accidents, Workers' Compensation and disability claims. For more information please contact our office anytime at 1-803-932-6117. We help people in filing, negotiating, settling and litigating all types of insurance claims. There is no cost to speak to a lawyer in our office about your case.